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Tangible Outcome: Selection Criteria Statement

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How to Get Skilled: Introduction to Individual Skills Management (Project-Centered Course)

The State University of New York

4.8 (9 ratings) | 4.4K Students Enrolled

Do you want to gain a competitive edge on the job market? Would you like to improve the way that you organize, manage, and present your skills to succeed in a competency-based, competitive job selection? Have you prepared to compete for jobs in the age of AI-powered recruiting? This project-centered course* is designed for working professionals who want to direct their skill-building activities towards creating powerful, evidence-based, data-driven, and externally-verified job applications. When you complete the course, you’ll be able to objectively measure your level of skills acquisition against your desired job’s requirements and the likely competition. You’ll learn how to use experiential methods and tools, such as simulations, benchmarking, competency dashboards, and skills assessment to operationalize and quantify your skills. You will know how to realistically estimate your likely score in the competitive job selection; you will also find out how much of each skill you need to develop to stand out and beat the competition. In addition to improving your job applications, the course will teach you how to increase the effectiveness of your ongoing professional development by monitoring the level of skills acquisition. The course will provide you with tangible outcomes for immediate use. We’ll show you how to use a simple, powerful computer program to organize and manage your skills inventory. Your completed project will focus on your desired job and will include three components: 1) a Skillset Summary Checklist; 2) a Selection Criteria Statement; and 3) a Professional Development Plan. Upon completion of the course, you will be able to use the results of the project to strengthen your next job application (or promotion request). You’ll be able to use the same technique to direct your skill-building activities and continuously monitor their effectiveness. What is required: In the course, we’ll provide videos, readings, and learning activities. There is an optional course companion book available for purchase on Amazon.com. To download the course software, “J.A.F.A.R, Skills Manager Pro (TM)”, you will need to access the course companion website at https://www.skillsmanager.pro. The software is a copyrighted Excel spreadsheet template; for course participants, it is provided free of charge (for personal, non-commercial use only). To use the software, you will need to have a basic level of proficiency and a licensed copy of MS Excel. *About Project-Centered Courses: Project-centered courses are designed to help you complete a personally meaningful real-world project, with your instructor and a community of like-minded supportive learners with similar goals providing guidance and suggestions along the way. By actively applying new concepts as you learn, you’ll master the course content more efficiently; you’ll also get a head start on using the skills you gain to make positive changes in your life and career. When you complete the course, you’ll have a finished project that you’ll be proud to use and share.

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From the lesson

Skills Management in Action: Part One

Now, it is time to put individual skills management to work and explore how you can implement the methods and techniques introduced in the course in typical skill-building scenarios. In this and the following Modules, we examine two case studies dealing with three career enhancement scenarios, namely Job Excellence, Job Enhancement, and Job Diversification. We also demonstrate how to use "Jafar", the skills management application, for producing tangible outcomes for your ongoing professional development and your next job application. In Module 3, we begin by demonstrating how to identify, quantify, and objectively evaluate a job-specific skillset. Then, we will focus on generating a powerful and informative Selection Criteria Statement. We will also discuss how you can significantly improve your next job application by making it job-specific, evidence-based, data-driven, and externally-verified.

Scenario 1: Job Excellence8:53

Tangible Outcome: Skillset Summary Checklist9:41

Scenario 2: Job Enhancement9:23

Tangible Outcome: Selection Criteria Statement9:04

Taught By

Dr. Valeri Chukhlomin
Professor
Amy Giaculli
Assessment Specialist

Transcript

Previously, we started working on scenario 2 job enhancement, to explore how you can improve your standing in a skill-based competitive job selection process by adding a new technical skill in the same professional field. We will now use this scenario to illustrate how you can enhance your ability to communicate the increased value of your job-specific skill set to potential employers. In this lecture, we'll continue using Maria's case study. We left Maria asking for assistance in communicating the skills that are still under development to a prospective employer. To better understand the problem, let's review her situation again. Maria is an accountant. As a result of her job market field research, she figured out that by developing advanced level MS Excel skills, she would be able to transition to a higher level management accounting job. To prepare for this career move, Maria is using JAFAR, a skills management model described in this course. Let me explain. First, I found a typical job description and identified a job-specific skill set for the job. Then I transfer data from my previous job. This was easy. The tricky thing was to populate the section on advanced Excel skills since I'm not using it in my current job. Maria found that using JAFAR proved to be very helpful for guiding her professional development. This is very cool, as I was guided through the process even though I am not yet in that position. I found benchmarks, criteria, collected evidence, and even managed to get some of my skills assessed all through my field research, online studies, Excel University, workshops, and networking. Maria realized that working on her job enhancement has taught her to become her own career coach. Exactly. I knew that I needed to gain advanced Excel skills, and I was willing to take some online courses that were promising just that. But when I looked them up, many of them turned out to be nothing more than intermediate level. Then I did my field research and found that I should have been looking for training specifically for pivot tables. Using JAFAR has taught Maria that she needs to obtain evidence of mastery, just as if she had been doing the job in the past. This was like a simulated flight, where I could try all these new flashy control buttons. I set a task for myself to check whether I could do it or not. I created a pivot table that would show sales and costs and margins by month, but with the ability to drill down to an individual invoice or customer. And then I have managed to get my files evaluated by an industry expert. As a result of her professional development efforts, Maria has assembled a nice-looking JAFAR for the position she would like to apply for. Now, Maria thinks that objectively, in a skill-based competitive job selection process, her skill set deserves a high score. I do feel that I am ready for the job, but how do I communicate that to prospective employers? I cannot add much to my resume at this point besides the newly gained certificate for taking an online course, but I know that I have so much more to bring to the table. JAFAR, can you help? This is the point at which we left Maria in the previous lecture. The problem she is facing is very real. Even if she managed to bend over backwards and developed a new skill, how will she get it detected by recruiters, hiring managers, and artificial intelligence-based HR systems? Fortunately, in some situations, the JAFAR's magic can help. This is because JAFAR is indeed intended to be a sort of flight simulator for future jobs. Not only does it give the pilot a chance to feel what the job is about, It also produces a record of the simulation. The JAFAR that Maria created for the new job application has the power to produce a document called selection criteria statement. To review and then print out the document, Maria needs to proceed to step six in the application. As you can see, the selection criteria statement is a detailed, evidence-based, and data-driven response to the job advertisement. It explains how María's skill set matches the requirement and how her scores are obtained and verified. In short, it explains why she deserves to be in the qualified pool. The more effort Maria puts into her JAFAR, the more accurate and impressive the resultant selection criteria statement is going to be. It is supposed to show the employer that Maria invested sufficient time in learning about the job and preparing for it. For example, she knows what critical task the employer will likely want her to accomplish, and she can explain in detail what each task is about, how to get it done, and how she's prepared to get it done. Moreover, she has proof on file and is already assessed and verified. Wow. Now I see why the process has all those steps and how I can go back and improve some of my other skills. But the question is, whether my prospective employer will accept a selection criteria statement? Depending on how the job application process is structured, there might be different ways to use the selection criteria statement. This can be a standalone document, or part of the cover letter, or parts of it can be incorporated into your resume. This is something I'm also interested in. How do I craft my resume to incorporate the selection criteria statement? Because this is a skills management course, we are not specifically addressing how to prepare a resume. Requirements are very different across different fields. Please note that using the wrong resume template sends a clear signal to the employer that the applicant didn't invest any time in learning about the industry or the organization and may be one of the fastest ways for an application package to end up in the garbage bin. Okay, I get it. What if we think about resume preparation as a sort of a communication skill with benchmarks, benchmarking criteria, best practices, samples, and assessment? Now we're talking. And what would be the main benchmarking criteria for a resume, say, in your case? I guess my resume is supposed to look exactly like a typical resume in the industry and the type of organization I am applying for a job with, but the skills must be superb and match what they are asking for. Is there any cool JAFAR ish way to present my skills in the resume? Well, these days people in organizations are looking for new ways to communicate the level of skills and application packages. One way of doing it is to use a selection criteria statement. Another way is to utilize the LinkedIn skills feature, but as it is not accurately verified, the skills may not match critical tasks. Yet, another way is to use a functional resume if it is appropriate in your field. A functional resume is one where there is a special section explicitly devoted to the mastery of skills. You can find examples by googling functional resume. Some of them are really cool, but they can be more suitable for some occupations more than others. For example, graphic designers. What makes a functional resume so neat is that it includes a set of dashboards visually representing skills and their levels. Does it look familiar? The problem with those dashboards is that they may not be grounded in any real benchmarking and expert evaluation. Also, the skills they represent may not be linked to critical tasks for specific jobs, which makes this type of resume sometimes of limited value. But what if I use the competency dashboard from my JAFAR? It is grounded in the real job requirements. Also, it is really evidence-based, data-driven, and verified just like you said. Can I export it into my resume? Yes, especially if your prospective employer knows how to read it. Ideally, a resume is supposed to be customized for the position you are applying for. Then, incorporating a competency dashboard does make it look cool, verified, evidence-based, and data-driven. But still, you'd better check and double-check as some employers, particularly in your area, may prefer a more conservative approach. Now, here is my question to the audience. What signal do you think using a functional resume will send to your current or potential employer?

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